I’m through with pro-wrestling

By By LINDELL KAY Daily News Staff

Published: Saturday, October 27, 2012 at 01:45 PM.

I don’t watch professional wrestling anymore.

It has nothing to do with the matches being staged. I knew that 30 years ago. In fact, the only reason I ever watched wrestling was because it was fake — and thus much more entertaining than normal sports.

I’ve never cared much for sports. It didn’t help that I was always picked last.

But I grew up fascinated with pro-wrestling because of the storylines. And as I got older, the storylines in the faux sport seemed to mature as well.

Those stories reached a tipping point when Hulk Hogan joined other big names in a coup d’etat of a wrestling company. The action was fake, but it mirrored several real-life takeovers by long-time WWE promoter Vince McMahon.

The hard-to-tell-what-was-real narratives marked a highlight in pro-wrestling history. No longer were the bouts about nonsense like babyfaces versus heels or squabbles over silly arguments. For almost a decade from 1995 to 2005, the matches may have been choreographed, but the feuds fueling them were as real as disgruntled employees hating their employer. We have all — at one time or another — felt that way.

But something else was going on behind the scenes. The matches were faked, but the violence was real. Dozens of pro-wrestlers were hopping up on steroids and popping pain pills to keep up the pace.

It has nothing to do with the matches being staged. I knew that 30 years ago. In fact, the only reason I ever watched wrestling was because it was fake — and thus much more entertaining than normal sports.

I’ve never cared much for sports. It didn’t help that I was always picked last.

But I grew up fascinated with pro-wrestling because of the storylines. And as I got older, the storylines in the faux sport seemed to mature as well.

Those stories reached a tipping point when Hulk Hogan joined other big names in a coup d’etat of a wrestling company. The action was fake, but it mirrored several real-life takeovers by long-time WWE promoter Vince McMahon.

The hard-to-tell-what-was-real narratives marked a highlight in pro-wrestling history. No longer were the bouts about nonsense like babyfaces versus heels or squabbles over silly arguments. For almost a decade from 1995 to 2005, the matches may have been choreographed, but the feuds fueling them were as real as disgruntled employees hating their employer. We have all — at one time or another — felt that way.

But something else was going on behind the scenes. The matches were faked, but the violence was real. Dozens of pro-wrestlers were hopping up on steroids and popping pain pills to keep up the pace.

Then one by one they began to die. At first the business ignored the problem, but then like everything else, the real-life epidemic became part of the make-believe storyline.

If it wasn’t heart failure due to steroid abuse it was overdosing on painkillers. What began with the tragic cautionary tale of the Von Erichs spiraled out of control. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the deaths went from isolated tragedy to near extinction. Wrestlers have always died young, but in the mid-1990s, more and more grapplers weren’t making it past their 50th birthday. The advent of the Internet made finding out about the deaths much easier. The dark secret that pro-wrestles were burning out at an increasing rate couldn’t be hidden by promoters any longer.

Eddie Gilbert, 34, died in 1995. Dick Murdoch, 39, died in 1996. Brian Pillman, 34, died in 1997. Louie Spicolli, 27, died in 1998. The Junk Yard Dog, 46, died in 1998. Rick Rude, 41, died in 1999. Bobby Duncum Jr., 34, died in 2000. Yokozuna, 38, died in 2000. Terry Bam-Bam Gordy, 40, died in 2001. Big Dick Dudley, 34, died in 2002. Davey Boy Smith, 39, died in 2002. Kurt Hennig, 44, died in 2003. Miss Elizabeth, 42, died in 2003. Road Warrior Hawk, 46, died in 2003. Crash Holly, 32, died in 2003. Hercules Hernandez, 45, died in 2004. Big Boss Man, 42, died in 2004. Chris Candido, 33, died in 2005. Eddie Guerrero, 38, died in 2005. Earthquake John Tenta, 42, died in 2005. Bam Bam Bigelow, 45, died in 2007. Mike Awesome, 42, died in 2007. Brian Adams, 43, died in 2007. Andrew “Test” Martin died in 2009. Umaga, 36, died in 2009. Dr. Death Steve Williams, 49, died in 2009. Chris Kanyon, 40, died in 2010. Lance Cade, 29, died in 2010.

The whispered horror stories shocked America with headline news in 2007 when world champion Chris Benoit, jacked up on steroids and paid medications, killed his wife and son in their Atlanta area home before hanging himself with the cords to a weight-lifting machine.

I couldn’t stomach it anymore. I couldn’t enjoy sports entertainment knowing it was built on the broken bodies and shattered minds of the wrestlers.

The first opinion piece I ever penned for The Daily News back in 2007 was a fill-in for Joe Miller’s weekly wresting column. I said then that I had enjoyed watching the “male soap opera” since I saw Ric Flair and Wahoo McDaniel fight it out at my small-town high school. Not anymore.

I stopped watching years ago. And I don’t see me tuning in again.

Contact Daily News Senior Reporter Lindell Kay at 910-219-8455 or lindell.kay@jdnews.com. Follow him on Twitter and friend him on Facebook @ 1lindell.